Chapter 3

“Then what? If not with words, how else? Understanding everything just by looking into each other’s eyes only happens in novels. If this were just a simple misunderstanding, then why did you keep it secret? Forget explaining yourself—how can you shamelessly spout that kind of nonsense right in front of me?”

“You want me to do better than I am now too.”

I’m working right now, so why can’t you understand me? That was surely what Max was thinking inside. Lara could tell. Max’s face right now looked exactly stupid enough to be thinking something like that.

Lara only kept opening and closing her mouth. Her head was full of words, but none of them could come out. All she could do was let out a hollow laugh in utter disbelief. Her pale cheeks flushed red with anger.

“Why are you making that face…….”

Max trailed off as he watched Lara’s reaction.

“Could it be that, because Jeruna isn’t an ordinary person like you, you feel threatened? Because she’s pretty and young, and even comes from a good family?”

Lara could hardly believe he was actually saying that.

“I don’t like jealous women, but it’s not bad when you do it. Uh, it’s very, really new. I always thought you were just blunt and easygoing……. Then take this chance and make a little effort. Instead of always wearing the same gloomy clothes all the time.”

Max said this while casting a look at the collar of Lara’s coat, which was literally a dull gray. Lara could tell. This man was putting on airs in front of her right now, acting tough.

Avoiding Lara’s fierce stare, Max looked toward the inside of the restaurant behind her. Because of the large crowd, it was hard to see clearly inside. It would surely be the same from in there as well.

“Don’t worry. Even so, I’m definitely going to marry you.”

After briefly pressing his lips to Lara’s cheek, Max walked past her and went back into the restaurant without even saying goodbye.

Lara remained standing there, unable to step either inside or outside.

She had known Max for no less than fifteen years. The time during which they had promised each other love was already entering its ninth year. No matter what people around them might say, Lara had never once doubted the feelings of Max, a man far too good for her. Just as she sincerely loved him, she believed Max felt the same.

And so Lara had endured and overcome even the burden of Max’s wealthy background, so different from her own lacking self, and the pressure his people put on her. She believed that all that remained for the two of them now was to exchange kisses with vows of love.

‘But he’s seeing another woman? And while saying that insane nonsense about still marrying me anyway?’

Lara’s mind spun in circles as she faced a situation she had never imagined even in her dreams.

Max had never originally been a particularly affectionate person. But lately there had often been moments when she felt he was curt and sensitive with her. She had simply believed it was because we were both too busy to see each other often, and because he was a little immature in some ways.

“……You can marry by yourself, you bastard.”

Lara, staring blankly at the place where Max had disappeared, said this.

Turning around and going back to where her colleagues were, Lara made a distressed face and said that something urgent had come up and she had to leave first. Then, after offering Sian a brief apology and congratulations, she immediately left the restaurant. Her steps were very hurried, fitting someone who had said that something had happened.

Once out of the restaurant, Lara began to walk aimlessly, without even deciding on a destination. With a half-lost expression, she passed another restaurant, passed a famous bakery, passed a flower shop preparing to close, passed a park where lovers were strolling warmly together…… and before she knew it, Lara had reached the area near the Knight Order fortress, her workplace.

As if welcoming Lara’s return, a thin rain began to fall from the clouded sky. Honestly…….

“What rotten luck.”

Lara muttered. A sudden shower, and flocks of black crows flying low overhead. The atmosphere was truly something. Soon, she felt she could believe it even if someone told her the world was about to end.

“Ugh, what the—.”

Barely dodging a flock of birds swooping low in front of her, Lara hurriedly looked around.

Neither the coachmen she would normally see often, nor the children selling umbrellas, were anywhere in sight. Around Lara, everything in this world had sunk into a gloomy silence. Lara’s face, already downcast, darkened even more.

Right now, she needed rest. Immediately, Lara ought to return home, to the bed that others might find hard and stiff, but that was at least soft and cozy to her, and go to sleep. She also needed to rest her right leg, which she was not supposed to overuse for too long.

But she did not feel like going home, nor did she feel like sleeping.

‘I want to get drunk.’

For that reason.

At that moment, the scene of a familiar tavern floated into Lara’s mind. It was ‘Wednesday’s Knight,’ the tavern and eatery located in front of the Knight Order fortress.

At ‘Wednesday’s Knight,’ alcohol and food were sold a little more cheaply to those who worked for the Knight Order. Ever since getting a job with the Order, Lara had never gone to any tavern other than this ‘Wednesday’s Knight.’ Why would she go somewhere else to drink when there was a place that gave discount upon discount? She needed to save even a single coin more.

‘……Let’s go.’

Lara placed her small but sturdy bag over her head as an umbrella and began walking forward again. Quite impulsively, she chose ‘Wednesday’s Knight’ instead of home.

That it had not been a good choice…… Lara only realized the next morning.

The strangely quiet ‘Wednesday’s Knight’ echoed with the gloomy singing of a bard. From the melody to the lyrics, from one to ten, it was music that provoked Lara’s anger.

Lara sat at a seat at the very center of the bar in the wide interior of the tavern, built with the large frames of knights in mind. It was a place she would never normally sit. To have to sit facing the tavern owner, with whom she had never exchanged more than a word while ordering, how awkward was that. But today she had made a big decision and sat at the bar. The reason was simple. She wanted to press a tip into the hand of the kind owner and try pouring out the grievances of her day. Like the older men of the Knight Order did.

Lara asked the man standing guard over the bar for the strongest, harshest liquor they had. He was the husband half of the owner couple who ran the establishment, a man whose face she had often seen in passing.

After receiving the drink, well, what followed was the usual course. Grievances or not, Lara first devoted herself to drinking.

“……You bastard like a falsified profit-and-loss statement.”

Staring at her empty glass, Lara muttered. After throwing that curse toward Max, Lara knocked back the drink set before her in one gulp. At the moment, three empty glasses sat in front of her.

Naturally, Lara recalled the first time she had met Max.

The two had first met at a shipboard party hosted by several merchant companies. It was when Lara had not even been half her current height. It was also back when Lara’s father still ran a merchant company—before he ruined the business and they were thrown out onto the street.

While the adults exchanged laughter, drinks, and words, young Lara had done nothing but steal glances at Max’s face. Her lips had been tightly sealed, like someone who had forgotten how to speak. At that time, Max was the most handsome boy Lara had ever seen in her life. He looked so beautiful that she wondered if angels people spoke of might look like that.

“……Hello.”

The boy spoke to Lara in a voice as soft as his face. Even after being greeted directly, Lara had remained out of her senses for a long while.

“We’re the same age, right? My father told me about your family. I’m Max Kylen.”

That way of speaking, that shy smile—how beautiful they had been. The world before her spun in circles, and her heart pounded wildly on its own, making a loud noise.

Max looked closely at Lara’s face as if worried.

“Your face is red.”

Max’s hand touched Lara’s warmed face.

‘Right. That was how love began.’

A faint smile suddenly appeared on Lara’s face at the old memory that had come over her without warning. It was filled with self-mockery.